The Eternal Bump

This is my son's arm.

He has this bump on his arm from skateboarding that never goes away. It's got to hurt. Wear pads?? Oh, I don't think so, that's uncool.

Ah, teenagers.....what can you do? Really! I'd love some advice.

Down Syndrome Walk

The birthday party was a huge success. He had four friends over for skating, video games, and pizza.

Two of them spent the night.

We went to the Down Syndrome walk yesterday. One of my students' families is very sweet every year to invite us. There was a small petting zoo there complete with a porcupine on a leash!

Crazy.

We saw Rachel Coleman of Signing Time and heard her touching story and the fact that she and her sister are no longer going to be able to continue Signing Time financially because they have no corporate sponsor and so it won't be on any more after Oct. 1.

I saw another student who launched herself at me. Love 'em!

This is why we teach.

Hope you had a great weekend, too.

Happy Birthday!!

Today is my son's fourteenth birthday. He woke up this morning and yelled "I'm Fourteen!!" Must be something more magical than 13, because I don't remember him being this excited last year. Unfortunately, his big present isn't here yet, my bad, but he'll have some small stuff to open and friends to spend the night. Happy Birthday to my baby!

Name Three Things...

I've been playing a categorization game at school with my kids this week. They choose an acorn, read the prompt, and then name three things that belong in that category. My favorite so far has been "stomach" as the answer to name three containers. Clever, huh!?

Hail to the Chiefs

Last night we attended the ceremony to induct the new Naval Chief Petty Officers. It was a great ceremony. At our last duty station we attended many retirement ceremonies and promotion ceremonies, but this is the first we've been to here. The stage was set with a huge US flag and alongside were all 50 states' flags. It was really touching to see all the family members go up on the the stage to help 'pin' the new Chiefs and to see all the pride shown by those in attendance.

Congrats to all the new Chiefs!

HD

Well, it's official. We're HDified.











Didn't even have to have the Geek Squad come install it. We had our own Geek Squad.










Then, they played a preview of tonight's Monday Night Football game on Madden 2009.

Go Cowboys!!


Now we just need to call Dish to get the HD channels.

We Will Never Forget

It's hard to believe that it's been seven years since "the" September 11th. A day that certainly changed our lives, and we were nowhere near New York. I remember a student coming in telling me a plane hit the World Trade Center. Then the announcements came on and asked us to have all TVs and computers turned off, so I wasn't sure what happened. I remember listening in horror to the talk radio on my (then) hour drive home, and when I walked in the house, I burst into tears. I made a scrapbook of the occasion that has all the names listed of people who lost their lives.
What else can you say?